"you can tell people are Jewish just by looking at them, vladenschutte? How does that work?
There’s a few facial characteristics that are typical. "
How does a Jewish person with a German or Eastern European background look different from anyone else with a similar German or EE background?
I know I was giving Vladenschutte a hard time, but of course there were always a lot of German and East European Jews who did have a stereotypically “Jewish” appearance and stood out from the Gentile population as such (making it much harder to go underground during the war than it was for those who “passed” as Gentiles) – darker skin, extremely curly/frizzy hair, “Jewish” nose, shorter stature, etc.
Sure. But it’s not a for-sure deal at all these days that a Jewish family has “that look.”
Absolutely; I agree.
Wow. This thread has many ignorant posters. And because they are ignorant, they just go by the stereotypical characteristics of a race and lump them altogether. Not smart at all. There are stereotypes because people are ignorant and don’t care to learn about the true race/color/religion/etc. How sad in this day & age that this still happens no matter what the race/color/religion is. You would think after being on cc for awhile that people are just people. Try not to lump them altogether because there are so many differences. Even within the same race/color/religion.
I believe that the majority of Persians immigrant families are Jewish or Christians. Of course there are Persians Muslems who left Iran because the want to be free politically and/or friends of the late Shah.
As for Jews looking alike…no, we don’t (duh). Persian Jews can have straight dark hair or natural blonds. My dil has a nose that could use some attention, but she likes it and that wonderful. My son looks like my mother. My girls have ridiculously long legs and straight hair.
I also want to assure people that, I heard this a long time ago, not all “old Jewish women” get fat…
I had a Persian coworker who is also Jewish and another one who is ZoroAstrian. But I think 99% Of Iranians are Muslims. Not all Persians in USA are non Muslims.
I knew my next door neighbor was Jewish because his son told my son.
I would not have guessed Hispanic for two of my neighbors if I had not known their last names. They look like Anglos. One of the couples is older with salt and pepper hair. I think when people age and let their hair go gray, it can be very hard to tell from appearance which race they are.
I labelled two neighbors on my street middle-eastern because I know their last names and my kids knew their kids from school. One wife has blonde highlights, but I have heard her speaking Farsi (I think) to another woman at the gym.
I know two families in my neighborhood are Asian both from appearance and their single-syllable last names. It is obvious to me in their cases.
The black couple looked black to me, so I assume they are black, but I’ve never met them.
On many occasions I have heard Judaism referred to as a race rather than a religious preference. While physical characteristics can be common to a certain race, there are no physical characteristics shared based on a religious preference. The fact is that the Palestine people share common physical characteristics with the Israelites. They are the same people (in my opinion) who have chosen to follow different beliefs. As previously mentioned, there are black Jews, blond Jews, and Spanish Jews. Really, I think it’s the fact that there is this whole country with this dominant religion that make some people see Judaism as a race. Not saying that there would be anything wrong with sharing common features, but considering the diversity, one can see how this would be offensive.
I am an Ashkenazi Jew, with dark hair and brown eyes. I went on a Mediterranean cruise many years ago that went to Malta, Greece, Italy, Israel and Egypt. In every port I was approached as if I were a native of the area. My Irish/ German/ Italian American friend with blonde hair was always spoken to in English by shop keepers, but never me. They were always shocked to hear that I wasn’t from their country. Same on my trip to Spain and Portugal a few years later.
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but of course there were always a lot of German and East European Jews who did have a stereotypically “Jewish” appearance and stood out from the Gentile population as such (making it much harder to go underground during the war than it was for those who “passed” as Gentiles) – darker skin, extremely curly/frizzy hair, “Jewish” nose, shorter stature, etc.
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and didn’t we learn that when the Ivy schools were limiting Jewish admissions that they actually listed various features in files?
I imagine that at the time, they were referring to mostly Jewish people from Germany and other nearby countries.
And, of course, as mentioned above, not every Jewish person looks any particular way.
I’m sure they did keep track of such things. After all, the emphasis on athletics, and on being “well-rounded,” was originally code for not being too bookish, i.e., not being Jewish.
And I’m certain that I’ve read that back before the Second World War, Yale actually used to photograph each member of the freshman class nude, for vaguely eugenicist reasons of evaluating health, etc. One must make sure that the future members of the ruling class are (literally) fine upstanding young men, after all.
Since the Jews were mentioned a few times and CNN just had an article about the suffering of the Jews during WW-II, do you think this diplomat really saved many Jews in that period and there were many of them temporaily lived in Shanghai in 1940?
The link to a recent CNN article:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/19/asia/china-jews-schindler-ho-feng-shan/
(BTW, I noticed that this diplomat, when he was in his teens, was educated at a high school established by Yale, called Yali (not Yale) High School. They established that school in honor of a missionary, a Yale graduate, by the boxers.)
Also, this link:
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/stories/ho.asp
What is this organization, Yad Vashem?
Back to the original topic, there is this dot map of race and ethnicity:
http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/
http://www.coopercenter.org/demographics/Racial-Dot-Map
You can magnify it to your city or neighborhoods.
Some have commented on how it shows historical segregation remaining to this day:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/07/16/how-railroads-highways-and-other-man-made-lines-racially-divide-americas-cities/?tid=sm_tw
Yes, D was careful to rent on the college side of the “light rail” tracks rather than the “projects side.” No regrets, as LA is a pretty exciting place already, with helicopters and police sirens even on and around the campus where she graduated.
I have a Jewish friend whose Catholic fiance converted to Judaism to please her. So really, anyone has the potential to be Jewish.
Muslims (Uighurs, Indonesians, Arabs, Nigerians, Serbs) & Christians (Koreans, Europeans, Nigerians) also span the racial gamut. Then there’s Tina Turner as a black Buddhist.
I read an article about how those Chabad guys on the street can tell if people are Jewish - if the person is looking at them with curious interest, not Jewish. If the person is trying to avoid eye contact and walk by quickly, Jewish. 
The maps posted above don’t include HI, as is often the case. Faiths can certainly span the racial gamut and many don’t strongly ID with any particular faith, which also seems to cross racial and ethnic lines.
Actually, the dot map does include Hawaii – but you have to move the map across the Pacific Ocean to find it (it helps to move the view slider all the way out first). Lots of red (Asian) and brown (other and multiracial) dots there.
My S’s girlfriend is Jewish - adopted as a baby from China.
Another friend of mine who is white/Jewish married a Chinese man who converted, so their biracial children are Jewish, and have the last name of Li.
My SIL married a Hispanic man (Cuban) and their children are Jewish with a very Hispanic sounding last name.